On Saturday morning, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) responded to news that the FBI will investigate sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh by calling for an investigation of Democrats — in particular, whoever was responsible for leaking a letter written by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford detailing her story of being assaulted by Kavanaugh.
Echoing the evidence-free conspiratorial language Kavanaugh used during Thursday’s hearing about the origins of Ford’s accusation, Cassidy suggested some sort of Democratic plot is at work.
“This is part of a broader Democratic strategy to coordinate, and in that coordination, to seek to delay,” Cassidy said on Fox & Friends. “How many more charges can be brought out to smear this man, to create legitimate doubts in the minds of some of the American public?”
“There are other things the FBI should do, but it should investigate whether indeed there is this intent to coordinate, and in fact, the actual coordination,” Cassidy added.
Cassidy singled out Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA), calling for her to be interrogated under oath. Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, denies playing any role in leaking the letter Ford wrote to her detailing her story of being assaulted by Kavanaugh at a party in 1982.
“Let’s actually investigate. Ask Diane Feinstein under oath, did she leak it, then ask her aide,” he said.
On Fox News, Sen @BillCassidy responds to numerous sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh by calling for an FBI investigation of…. [checks notes]….. Democrats.
"The FBI should investigate whether indeed there is this intent to coordinate." pic.twitter.com/utXE0P0TRO
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 29, 2018
The Intercept, which broke the story about Ford’s letter, denies that Feinstein and her staff were responsible for the leak.
Feinstein's staff did not leak the letter to The Intercept
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) September 27, 2018
Ford actually praised Feinstein for the way she and her staff handled her accusation during Thursday’s hearing.
FORD: "In a letter dated August 31, Sen Feinstein wrote that she would not share the letter without my explicit consent. And I appreciated this commitment. Sexual assault victims should be able to decide for themselves when and whether their private experience is made public." pic.twitter.com/7yzWRlDNg9
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 27, 2018
Nonetheless, later during Saturday’s Fox & Friends, co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy went as far as to smear Feinstein as “the real villain” of the Kavanaugh scandal.
On @foxandfriends, @RCamposDuffy absurdly claims that Diane Feinstein is "the real villain" of the Brett Kavanaugh sexual assault(s) scandal because "Dr Ford was revictimized" by having testifying on Thursday.
(Ford has actually praised how Feinstein handled her accusation.) pic.twitter.com/JahhANWOav
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 29, 2018
Cassidy’s comments are a page out of the playbook that team Trump has been using to deflect from damaging revelations in the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign for possible collusion with Russia. Rather than responding to new revelations on their merits, Trump and his Republican enablers have raised concerns about process and called for the investigators to be investigated.